Dirty Filter Wool After One Week

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cypher1024

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 4, 2009
447
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Australia
Hey guys,
I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. The filter wool in my sump is filthy and clogged after only one week.

The tank is a 110 gallon with a common pleco, 19 small clown loaches and a few dithering fish. I feed the plec a zucchini every few days, which is my main suspect. I only let him have it overnight, and pull out the remaining zucchini in the morning.

Here are some pictures of what my filter wool looks like after a week:

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Well at least you know the filters doing its job.
You're not doing anything wrong, its just a whole lotta fish waste from a whole lotta fish.
 
What else do you feed? Could you possibly be overfeeding? What type of substrate, black sand? Seems a bit dark to be just waste. I notoriously overfeed my fish as I lose a lot to the filter and I have to change my filter socks every month or so.
 
foldem;4216405; said:
wow your pleco is a crapping machine. In general plecos will cause alot of waste, i added a small royal pleco to my 180G and now i have to gravel vac weekly where before i would vac every 3 weeks.
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I gravel-vac at least once a week and do a 50% water change at the same time. For a while I was doing a second 50% WC each week, but that didn't really seem to help.

moo.;4216440; said:
Well at least you know the filters doing its job.
You're not doing anything wrong, its just a whole lotta fish waste from a whole lotta fish.
Click to expand...
You might be right. Damn fish. Why do they have to be so interesting??

Pharaoh;4216715; said:
What else do you feed? Could you possibly be overfeeding?
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The loaches (and other inhabitants) get a mixture of New Life Spectrum, shrimp pellets, flake, algae wafers and occasionally some sinking carnivore pellets.
I'm probably overfeeding a little. It's always hard to judge how much to put in. If I put in just enough for the fish I want to feed, the plec buzzes in and eats it all. If I put in a little extra, he wont touch it. :screwy:

Pharaoh;4216715; said:
What type of substrate, black sand? Seems a bit dark to be just waste. I notoriously overfeed my fish as I lose a lot to the filter and I have to change my filter socks every month or so.
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The substrate is a black silica-based gravel. I washed it very thoroughly before I put it in, and the tank has been set up for almost a year now, so I would have thought anything small/light enough to get up into my overflow would have gone through the system by now.

Is it possible that it's some type of algae?
 
Im pretty sure it has something to do with the black sand because ive never seen a filter black like that. All of the beneficial bacteria ive seen is a light tan to brown. Pleco poop is black...
 
FishingOut;4218698; said:
Im pretty sure it has something to do with the black sand because ive never seen a filter black like that.
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I'm not using sand though - I've got gravel. Since I've got an overflow, it's highly unlikely that any of it could make it up into the overflow (unless it's dissolving into the water).

FishingOut;4218698; said:
All of the beneficial bacteria ive seen is a light tan to brown. Pleco poop is black...
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The stuff on the filter wool is actually a very dark green/brown, but I think you're right about it not being BB. My plec poops in a lighter shade of green/brown when he's been eating the loaches food, and bright white/green if he's been eating zucchini.
 
wow thats crazy, my filter sock gets so dirty i have to clean it 2 times a day. helps keep my sump 10x cleaner
 
I have around the same number of clown loaches and have to clean the wet/dry mechanical media 2-3 times a week. That's why I got stainless steel mesh so I can just hose it out.

I only have the smaller bristlenose plecos. They're better algae eaters and are a bit afraid of the loaches so they don't steal their food.
 
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